Pelagic Fishing Trip: Whales and dolphins, but no Tuna

     About two weeks ago I joined my friend on his boat for a fishing trip targeting yellowfin tuna.  We left his dock around 11:30 on a Tuesday night to head out of Barnegat Inlet and made our way out about 90 or so miles.  We didn’t make it back to his dock until around 7:30 Wednesday night.  We reached the fishing grounds at 3:30 in the morning and spent several hours trolling and searching for tuna.  Despite the captain’s efforts, the tuna were not interested in anything we offered.  From the conversations I heard over the boat’s radio, very few of the other vessels out there had any better luck.

I, unlike others on the boat, am a nature enthusiast and found some consolation despite the lack of tuna.  After the sun rose, there was plenty of marine life across the fishing grounds.  Whales, dolphins and birds were feeding all around us, which made the lack of tuna perplexing.  Most of the birds were Wilson’s storm-petrels, fluttering and skipping across the water surface to eat.  A few rafts of nearly three dozen storm-petrels resting on the water scattered as the boat trolled past.  A few great shearwaters glided in and out of the area throughout the day.
The gracefulness and beauty of a great shearwater.  © S. Weiss

The cetaceans, however, stole the show.  Pods of common dolphins were around the whole time that we were in deep water.  They are more striking in appearance compared to their inshore cousins, bottlenose dolphins.  Not intimidated by the fishing vessels, these dolphins zip alongside the boat at high speeds, sometimes cruising across the front or underneath.  Very active and acrobatic, they frequently come completely out of the water when cruising, showing off their hourglass color pattern.
Common dolphin.  © S. Weiss

With the exception of one humpback whale, all the larger sea mammals were fin whales.  The fin whales were all over, as I counted at least ten near the surface in one scan across the fishing area.  The second largest creature on earth, after the blue whale, their size was put into perspective when they surfaced near a boat.  A few times while I was scanning the water for a whale, one would appear just a few yards from our boat.  The sound of the behemoth exhaling air and spouting water as it came up to take a fresh breath can be startling and awesome at the same time.  If only these wonderful encounters occurred a little closer to shore.
The blow of a fin whale.  © S. Weiss

Fin whale's size against a 25+-foot fishing boat for comparison.  The middle of the whale's head is at left and its dorsal fin is at right.  The tail section of the whale is still submerged and is about 1/3 of the animal's length.  © S. Weiss

Pair of fin whales.  © S. Weiss

Head section of fin whale at surface.  A unique feature of fin whales is the lower jaw is white only on the right side.  The front corner of the lower right jaw is visible here.  © S. Weiss

Fin whale next to our boat.  © S. Weiss

Sea life frenzy:  fin whale on the right, common dolphins on the left, great shearwaters and Wilson's storm-petrels in the center.  © S. Weiss

We didn’t arrive back at the dock completely sans fish.  A stop at one spot on our way in provided us with some golden tilefish to put on our dinner tables.  Not as exciting to catch as tuna, but very delicious alternatives.

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